


Deniable & Inescapable

by RosalineLevesque



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Air Nomad Genocide (Avatar), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Eastern Air Temple (Avatar), Fate & Destiny, Firebending & Firebenders, For Zukaang, Friendship/Love, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Pre-Canon, Rare Characters, Soulmates, What's some Zukaang without the soulmatism, You can interpret the alluded Zukaang as platonic or romantic, Zuko is not really nice in this, full of anger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28387803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosalineLevesque/pseuds/RosalineLevesque
Summary: Pathik adopted the kind of stance most suitable for approaching a wounded animal. "Listen-"Zuko kept him at a distance with a well-placed line of fire. "No, you listen! You know, I wrote you off as senile from the moment I saw you, but this? It exceeds my wildest thoughts!""It's clear that you are not ready to accept a different path for yourself." the elder persisted, confronted by the Prince's emotive wave, however he had ceased trying to be closer to him. "You are of a stubborn nature and you seek validation in places that gift those in their favour with flimsy love and support. These shouldn't be bestowed on the basis of power and prestige. Individuals hold a deeper inherent value than that.""You-" the whisper bordered on a roar. "-don't know anything about me.""Not a lot." Pathik conceded. "This is why it's not me who will help you consider this different path. Those that care for you, have hope for you or share burdens with you will and somehow, someday, this group will include the Avatar."( a.k.a On his search for the Avatar, Zuko has an unexpected encounter at the Eastern Air Temple. There, he contemplates his destiny, his bending and Onion-Banana juice)
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Aang/Zuko (Avatar), Pathik & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 44





	Deniable & Inescapable

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this post about Zuko running into Guru Pathik in his search for Aang: https://www.irresistible-revolution.com/post/637676578368880640/l-egionaire-thethiefandtheairbender-so-guru
> 
> My own tumblr account can be found here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/roselevesque
> 
> KUDOS, COMMENTS AND CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!
> 
> More to say in the end notes.

Third time was said to be with charm, right? 

Well, Zuko wanted to tell whoever invented the blasted phrase to go eat a bowl of extra firey Fire Flakes, with no water on hand, in order to experience the sheer anger simmering in him at every empty, crumbling room he found in the Eastern Air Temple.

Similar to its sister locations in the North and the West, the place showed no sign of a human's touch gracing it in recent years. It was desolate and quiet, the most alive thing being the crabs climbing in and out of the cracks in fading wall paintings. Zuko stopped his stride in front of one such painting. If he squinted hard enough, he could just about make out the image: Four white creatures with horns flew against a greyed out sky in what he assumed to be some sort of play. Below them was a woman, an Air Nomad undoubtedly, cladded in her people's traditional clothing and accessories, whose poise and solemnity in features had failed to age with her colours. 

_'Sky Bysons'_ Zuko noted, calling forth the knowledge his Uncle had first imparted to him all those months back. But while this he had elucidated, the woman's identity remained a mystery. He stepped closer, pulled in by this strange magnetism that had been sinking in since laying eyes on the artwork. It guided his arm towards the top of her head and, in one quick motion, he removed the crab resting there to reveal an arrow of a brilliant blue - the most vibrant thing in this trampled piece of the past. This small detail somehow tied every element together. The boy did not know who she was or what she meant to the Nomads, however he found himself engulfed in awe for the display which knotted his tongue trying to let out why he was so shaken to begin with.

A rusty bell's shrill suddenly rang, serving as the Prince's alarm. Zuko snatched his hand from the painting and his mind from the trance it had been in, startled.

The wake-up was accompanied by a frown. 

He must have been less energized than he thought. Maybe his Uncle had been right to warn him about the dangers of lacking sleep. Zuko was now getting caught up in aesthetic admiration while looking for the Avatar for crying out loud. Next thing he knew, he might start having tea and Pai Sho breaks once every pass of the clock. What complete nonsense!

Yet the tips of his fingers continued to pulse as he journey through the temple's higher chambers. 

Far from shocking, the rest of the search followed in its predecessors' footsteps through its ability to frustrate Zuko to no end. Zero signs of the Avatar. Zero findings. Only more crumbling rooms and fading colours and a much more eerie silence than the one before.

When he reached the Temple's peak, it was with a dejected tension in his bones and the sore reminder that he'd have all the time needed to ruminate on failure's familiar, ashy taste on his way down to the ship. Thankfully at least, he could afford a moment to rest. Inspecting each and all quarters there had been exhausting. The Western Air Temple may have had the trickier architecture, but the Eastern beat it in terms of scale by miles. No wonder it had taken almost twice as long to check it out.

"First time visiting here?"

Zuko drew his swords out faster than a lightning strike. 

The stranger raised his arms up. "Oh, I've disturbed you, haven't I?" he said. "I apologise. It's rare that I encounter other people, I wasn't expecting anyone this soon...You can have a bit of Onion-Banana juice if you wish, it's pretty invigorating. I am Guru Pathik."

 _'Guru Pathik'_ turned out to be a simple old man. He was wearing plain, yellow fabric and in his hand he held a bowl of food Zuko wasn't particularly eager to become acquainted with given the absurd combination. Whereas Uncle Iroh's hair was closer to a rock grey, Guru Pathik's beard, a white on par with a mountain's snow, gave away an age that stretched well beyond what most dreamt to squeeze out of their life in this world. The wrinkled brown skin above his brows also reflected that age. The Prince had a vague impression that boundless stress and anger couldn't have possibly been its cause - a tell for the flowing time and nothing more. He watched Zuko calmly, a bizarre state to be in for someone at the end of a sword's tip.

No, not a simple old man after all.

Could it be?

Zuko tightened the grip on his blades before finally voicing his staggering mind. "An elder who looks over a hundred years old..." he pushed one sword forward, against the Guru's chest. "Living in the Air Nomads' ruins..." a breath of fire shot raw between his drawls. "Cut off from civilisation..." The man's face morphed from shock into understanding. "You must be the Avatar!"

He studied him, pity engraved in his very being. Zuko hated pity. "I'm afraid not, young Firebender"

The boy snapped. "Why else would you be here!? Why else would anyone be here!?"

"I'm like you." the elder enveloped Zuko's hand within his own, slowly lowering it, and thus the sword, from his chest area. The Prince was stunned. He hadn't registered his trembling limbs until Pathik's steady hold provided contrast. "I'm waiting for the day when mine and the Avatar's destinies will cross paths and for it to happen I need to be here." The old man paused. "Not exactly here, here. Here as in, somewhere in the Temple, but you get it, right?"

_'He must be senile...'_

Not waiting for a response, the Guru made his way towards the platform's edge. Zuko sheathed his swords and followed him with his gaze at a loss for words. The man had sat down, adopting a meditative position, gulped down the horribly-sounding onion-banana mix, after which he had closed his eyes and added nothing more to their discussion for a couple of minutes.

Those minutes drained the last straw of Zuko's shallow patience. "You believe the Avatar will return." he stated rather than asked.

"Of course."

"Most people don't."

Pathik seemed to possess the uncanny ability to unnerve him from head to toe. A single knowing smile thrown in his direction and Zuko's stomach was lurching nauseatingly. Spinning, spinning. The man breezing through his earlier intimidation tactics had to either speak of bountiful confidence in the ability to evade him or perhaps a subtle death wish. Zuko couldn't be sure which one he was less prepared to deal with.

"Ah, when you say 'most' you obviously don't include yourself. Why is that?" the elder peeked at the Prince through one barely open eye and patted the space near him - the universal gesture for _'Come sit here'_.

Despite his apprehension, he did just that. "People don't have a reason to believe after so long."

"And still, you do. I sense a great conviction in you."

Zuko scarcely felt the urge to spill his inners in such an...eloquent manner as the Guru attempted to derive from him to anyone, not Uncle and certainly not peculiar strangers claiming they would meet the Avatar as they drank even more peculiar juices and brushed off Firebenders holding them at sword point. How come he felt tempted to talk anyway? 

Apparent kindness could be a priceless jewel and a sinister weapon through its duality. 

With a groan, his back hit the stone floor, stare settled on the distant dusk. Once he finally answered, the words sounded even further and lower than the feeble sunlight. "Let's say most people's entire livelihood doesn't depend on it." _My throne...My home...My father..._ "I can't not believe in him, because doing so would mean giving up on everything I've lost, admitting that I am not fit and I never will be. Turning away from this mission is as good as allowing my honour's ashes to be buried forever."

Indeed, though calling capturing the Avatar 'a mission' might have been an understatement bigger than The Great Divide. Bringing the threatening enigma before his father's judgement was his second chance. Zuko had mocked himself, his family and his Fire Lord in the Agni Kai and Father had proceeded according to tradition: the Prince had been stripped bare to a boy and had undergone a humiliation for the ages, but Father had chosen to extend him a hand, hidden in a corner of this wide and uncharted land - a suitable redemption packed as punishment for the child whose luck had run out at birth.

He glanced at the man next to him, biting his lip. The dwindled heat from his little speech rose and coursed out anew in the form of a smoke cloud. Again, the damn pitying gaze. 

"It's a shame-" Guru Pathik sighed, surrounded by residual heat. "That an individual with your passion channels this fire into a deepening sense of shame and fury." the elder shifted his head to the right, looking straight towards Zuko's eyes, more specifically around his eyes. "You are quite the walking contradiction, aren't you?"

One thing that gritted the boy's nerves worse than pity was gawking at his scar, and in earnest at that! People tended to become invested in the stories behind others' disfigurement - absolutely none of their business, yet they loved to snoop under the assumption of divine imperative on their part. It hadn't been a constant issue for Zuko himself since instructing his crew and working them to the bone in order not to deal with this, but the moments off the ship were a different story. A perverse story. 

Pathik let out a slightly guttural noise ( disturbingly perceptive in tone ), then carried on with his previous activity: sitting in a perfect meditative stance, with his eyes shut and breath even. His technique could be appreciated unabashedly. Marked by the element of Fire as he were, Zuko needed to invest effort in nurturing and taming the flames. Uncle Iroh had explained to him during their lessons that, for a fire's wildness, the best opposition consisted of controlled air with its origin in the lungs. 

_\- "Excessive ventilation leads to kindling of unrestrainable degrees." Uncle had taught. "It's powerful and dangerous...to the enemy as well as yourself. You experience a boost and plummet before you can truly taste it. That's not to say that too little air doesn't have its own set of negatives. Fire is versatile. It goes through stages and stages. Sometimes it's warm, others it's hot. Prince Zuko, no matter what stage the fire is in, you, the bender, are the instigator and the guide. Whether it rushes over you or pummels you is up to how you manage the flame." -_

The Guru had not given any indication that he might be a bender, but were he able to wield fire, Zuko imagined he'd leave many novices seething with jealousy due to such technique. Plenty of proficient fighters too, for that matter. Any of Uncle Iroh's complaints about him 'focusing on the muscles' would evaporate in an instant, if only he saw his nephew doing this. 

_'Yeah...'_ Zuko observed the blend of night and day on the horizon bitterly _'If only'..._ Shit, guess he was acting like a jealous novice.

"Would you mind joining me somewhere else for a bit?" the boy craned backwards to look at the elder standing up now. When did he- "It's late and us both should have something to eat. I can prepare more bowls of Onion-Banana juice, but the ingredients are in one of the Temple's lower levels." he was offered a hand. "Shall we?"

The Prince brushed it off, opting to get up on his own. Promises for that...culinary wonder's taste repulsed him, still he trailed in the wake of Pathik's stroll nonetheless as they abandoned the sky-high platform and reached the floors sealed by fading wall paintings. Even in the presence of another person, the eerie silence Zuko had come to associate with this place did not deter, instead it was shooting burning blood through his system at a speed that rendered his heart to a madly pressed pump. And while having company helped little, it appeared that for the Guru it helped less. A dark stillness' victims included, among many more, typically serene men in the end, because whenever Zuko dragged his aching body hard enough to be side by side with Pathik's profile, his expression was hooded, embedded in a storm of bewilderment. 

He unfortunately didn't get the opportunity to speculate on its source, too busy avoiding an almost collision with his companion. He didn't get to admonish him for the abrupt halt either, the realisation of where exactly they were pouring cold water over and freezing him solid...except for his twitching fingertips. 

The sight impressed through blue, blue and more blue limited to an arrow shape.

"I'll assume you do not know who she is."

Zuko swallowed the nod in his throat. "Can't say I do."

"Her life makes a fascinating tale. She grew up in the Western Air Temple, a soul firm, compassionate and devoted to the ideal of peace and prosperity for the Four Nations. Don't let this image fool you-" the Guru chuckled, loosening his facial muscles. "-she wasn't always so serious, only when it mattered the most. Too often the strength of a person's will is judged solely by their harshness and severity, not their overall character and actions. A sad reality, but there are people who keep challenging it. She had an ambitious, yet empathetic attitude. Not necessarily a cut-throat and in spite of this, her legacy can not be contested. It's in the history written about her and it's the ruins around us." 

Prompted by that, the boy moved in a circular motion, viewing things as though having new eyes. He scanned those ruins for a second time that day and he listened on to Pathik's story.

"Her people are in a similar situation. They may be gone, but their essence lives. The Air Nomads nowadays are generally considered too inferior to have survived or relics from which we are detached. Their absence, much like the Avatar's, is felt, even if we've become desensitized to it. They hang onto our world, because a puzzle can't be complete with a fourth of its pieces missing. Should something close to completion be achieved, the carrier of the Nomads' and Yangchen's legacy is needed."

Yangchen...Yangchen. The name sparked familiarity in the back of Zuko's mind.

Pathik hesitated shortly, then added four last words. "Avatar Yangchen, that is."

The Prince could have sworn the ground had broken and disappeared from right under his feet. "Why tell me all of this?" he growled.

"I do not understand how it may happen nor will I pretend that I do, but earlier I was sent a vision about you and the Avatar."

Zuko detested how his heart perked up at the ridiculous news. "My goal is to track him down. Isn't it logical that I'd find him eventually? I repeat: my livelihood depends on it."

"Young firebender, your destinies are intertwined, woven into a tapestry with a design the Four Nations haven't seen since your people marched to war 100 years ago. They are not connected how you assume they are."

"Excuse me?" No. No. No damn pity. Enough of it! _'Run, fly, disintegrate'._

"In my vision, you and the Avatar stood shoulder to shoulder, the world laid in front of you."

He was slipping.

"You were not hunter and prey."

Edging towards a pit of insanity.

"You were not villain and hero."

But oh...the ground had already crumbled and Zuko was plunging into the mad infinity. The tethers had been cut long before he could have anticipated their usefulness and he wanted out and he prayed to smash into the earth. 

"You were equals, in mind, heart and will. That's what Yangchen showed me."

In the vastness, in the nothingness, was born a beast with burning wings and fleeting feats. It soared, elevated Zuko to a Sun and the boy unleashed deadly rays upon deadly rays into the quiet night, targeting the Guru and intending to melt that composure into blemished liquid.

He raged. "Are you kidding?! You-you expect me to believe the rubbish you blabber about? Do you give every random passerby access to whatever deranged waters float your boat or is this treatment reserved for me alone?"

Pathik adopted the kind of stance most suitable for approaching a wounded animal. "Listen-"

Zuko kept him at a distance with a well-placed line of fire. "No, you listen! You know, I wrote you off as senile from the moment I saw you, but this? It exceeds my wildest thoughts!"

"It's clear that you are not ready to accept a different path for yourself." the elder persisted, confronted by the Prince's emotive wave, however he had ceased trying to be closer to him. "You are of a stubborn nature and you seek validation in places that gift those in their favour with flimsy love and support. These shouldn't be bestowed on the basis of power and prestige. Individuals hold a deeper inherent value than that."

"You-" the whisper bordered on a roar."-don't know anything about me."

"Not a lot." Pathik conceded. "This is why it's not me who will help you consider this different path. Those that care for you, have hope for you or share burdens with you will and somehow, someday, this group will include the Avatar."

The beast's wings were turning crisp.

"Insane..." Zuko muttered over and over, stumbling towards the stairs. "You are an insane old man, affected by solitude to the point that he doesn't notice anymore. Have fun among the rocks waiting for an Avatar that won't ever arrive because he will have been captured by me and presented in chains to a grateful Fire Lord. I'm leaving!"

Just like that, he was rushing down the Temple he had been tracing meticulously hours previous. The stars up above illuminated the way and he did not dare wander back once, with his body nor with his mind. Zuko pushed through the numbness. It had merged with his cells and dragged him down while his pulsating fingertips escaped the same paralysed fate, dragging him to Avatar Yangchen's portrait, to the Guru. He pushed through the blaze too, but it was stark on his skin.

When Zuko arrived in his Uncle's concern-filled embrace, his fingertips were pulsating. When he crashed in his bed without further explanations, they were pulsating and they would continue to do so the next day and the day after that, much to the Prince's indignation.

**Author's Note:**

> Man, I'm so nervous to post this. I've had the idea in mind since seeing the inspiration post back in October-November I think, then boom, on the 24th I get the urge to write it down and now it's finally done!
> 
> Praying it's decent enough. I'm not too fond of the cohesive aspects of it, but I'm overall pretty satisfied with the end result. Hope y'all enjoyed it too!
> 
> KUDOS, COMMENTS AND CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!


End file.
